Historia

Estados Unidos en el siglo XIX

It offered the former slaves no role in the political future of the south

He endorsed of limited black suffrage

He granted African Americans the right to vote

States must ratify the 13th amendment

He was willing to pardon former confederates, except high officials, they had to make an oath swearing loyalty.

Prohibited slavery.

Radical Republican's Plan: To Punish

Leaders: Charles Summer, Thaddeus Stevens

The thought that reconstruction couldn't be secure without black suffrage

They wanted equal rights for the former slaves.

They didn't agree on the issue of dividing the land of the large slaveholders among the former slaves.

14th & 15th Amendment

14th: protected South against Black codes

Black codes: series of laws passed to limit freedom/rights of blacks

Protection of former slaves under the law

15th: no state may prohibit the right to vote because of race.

Tenure of Office Act

In order to limit Johnson's ability to interfere with its reconstruction plans, Congress passed them. This measure barred the president from removing office holders, including cabinet members, without the consent of the senate.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Believing the law unconstitutional, Johnson dismissed the Secretary of War, an ally of the radicals. This action the last straw, and Congress voted to impeach him. He wasn't removed, but lost his power.

Part Two

Reconstruction

Successes:

Some rights (in theory) 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.

Technology

Public education in the south

AA's in politics

Failures:

Blacks lacked many rights (in practice)

Discrimination, terrorism

Black Codes (Jim Crowe Laws, Grandfather Clause)

Union League:

Throughout the south, new groups achieved political powers. Many former slaves joined the Union League; they wanted to exercise their rights as citizens. The union League became their political voice. They had meetings at churches, picnics, etc.

Terms and Concepts

Carpetbaggers: the Republican Party brought to power whites that were new to politics; they had gone after, or during the war to the south. They were called like this, referring to their luggage. Their opponents said that they went to the south to reap the spoils of office. Most of them were former soldiers; others were investors who saw economic advantages in the postwar South.

Scalawags: native born southerners who joined the republican party. Most scalawags were white farmers who hoped the reconstruction governments would help them recover from wartime economic losses.

Share Cropping: under this system each participating family rented a piece of land and worked it relatively free from outside supervision. This system was very popular, at firs, because not many former slaves had enough money to have a piece of land of their own. They paid a share of the year's crops, to the landowner.

KKK: a significant number of former southern leaders, embittered by their defeat, were determined to overthrow the reconstruction government. In an order to restore white supremacy, they resorted to violence and terror. The purpose of the Klan was to terrorize African Americans who attempted to vote, and stand up for their rights. The scalawags and carpetbaggers were also victims of that violence. In 1870 - 1871 the Congress passed the Enforcement acts, outlawing terrorist societies and authorizing the use of the army against them.

Civil Rights act of 1866

Acts passed by Congress that guaranteed citizenship to African Americans, and gave them some rights. President Johnson later vetoed these bills.

Elections of 1876

In these elections the end of the reconstruction era was decided. The republican candidate, Rutherford Hayes lost to Samuel Tilden, a democrat. However, a dispute erupted over the electoral vote in several states. So they signed the Compromise of 1877, in this agreement the Republican Party gained the elections. And the democrats gained a promise of the withdrawal of all remaining federal troops from the south and federal support in internal improvements such as the expansion of the southern railway system.

Jim Crowe Laws

J\Laws passed in the South after reconstruction, to segregate the races.

Frederick Douglass

US abolitionist lecturer and writer. He escaped from slavery in 1838. he founded North Star, an abolitionist paper, he also supported women's suffrage.

He believed that “our reconstruction measures were radically defective” because they failed to give the ex-slaves any land.

Part Three

Ranchers: the railroads played an important role in creating new ways to exploit the land. The westward region had plenty of resources, like cattle and grass, conditions necessaries for ranches. Railroads complemented ranching, because it provided transport of cattle to the eastern cities.

Cowboys: the growth of ranching gave birth to the cowboy. To move cattle from southern Texas to Kansas, where the nearest railroads was, the ranchers needed someone to go along them, to keep the cattle in the right direction. Because of what they were transporting, they had to adopt measure, taken from the Spanish Vaqueros, like their vestment and equipment.

Miners: this was one of the most popular jobs at the time. During the westward expansion, large numbers of Americans, Irish, Chinese, Chilean, Mexican, German, etc. came in search of the American dream. This movements kept from 1859's - 1870's

Those systems, wouldn't have survived, if it weren't for the railroads that permitted those immigrants to go to the west, and to bring their products to the east, to sell it. Promontory Point, Utah, this was the point where the two railroad lines interconnected, creating a connection between the two oceans. This was ended in 1869.

Removal of Natives

With all this westward expansion the country population started to grow drastically, driving the natives to narrow places, where they couldn't survive, because they were nomads, that went wherever the buffalos went. The mines and ranchers, especially, violently pushed those tribes away, and took their lands; even the government used the force to gain lands.

1864, The Sand Creek Massacre. The Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes accepted an offer of protection from the government. But instead of peace the natives met with disaster, a group of soldiers attacked their camp; some tried to stop the fight by raising a white flag, but the result was 450 natives were killed.

Then, after many years of problems, the natives accepted to live in reservations, tracks of land under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

But still, some tribes like the Sioux didn't want to surrender, and they fought against the US army, in the Battle of Little Big Horn, this was a victory, but later they surrendered, in 1877.

Closing of the frontier

In 1890, the government declared the frontier officially closed.

This meant that it was no longer possible to leave the mistakes of the past behind and move on to new lands and new hopes, now they had to know the past, to do something in the present, to see the result in the future.

Part Four

Terms and Concepts

Trust: a common type of business consolidation in the 1880's - 1890's. it operated as one huge company, controlling the prices, and by so, the competitions.

Pool: business arrangements used in the 1870's and 1880's, in which several companies agreed to divide available business in an area among themselves and prevent competitions, by controlling prices.

Corporation: is a type of business organization that is created when three or more people apply for a charter or license from a state government. Under this system, the use of share, they are sold in order to raise money, in return, the shareholders receive dividends, a portion of the company's yearly profits.

Monopoly: this means that a trust has complete control over an industry (production, supply, quality, price, and wages)

Technological advances. Like the invention of the telephone, typewriter, calculator, light bulb.

This advances also changed the way people worked. Inventors developed many machines that displaced many workers. Instead of creating a product from start to finish, they specialized in some areas. And often a machine aided them. This brought Mass production, which brought more products with a cheaper rate. Worker wages decreased because of the immigrants. The work hours were about 15 hours a day, six or seven days a week.

Social Darwinism: Applied Darwinism to society. The survival of the fittest.

Gospel of Wealth: Religious selection. It said that God had chosen some to be wealthy, and that justifies the leaders wealth.

Laissez-Faire: this said that the government should let the economy alone, except when the business leaders wanted financial aid.

Robber Barons / Captain of industry

Part Five

Immigrants stories

Don't come back `til you sell them all: A polish immigrant girl was sent to the streets by her father to sell petticoats he had made. He told the girl not to come back until she had sold them all. The money was to be used to get her mother out of the hospital (she had a baby). Her father was too proud to ask for charity so he preferred to sell petticoats and have his dignity. The girl did sell them all.

Pictures - Brides: Japanese immigrants in order to find a wife often used the system of the “picture - bride”. This system consisted in exchanging pictures with their future groom/bride. The difference was that they would usually borrow a suit, take the picture in front of a mansion or a factory and pretend to be rich. The women would get very disappointed after they found out that they had married a poor guy.

Nativism: it was anti- immigrants attitudes. People were competing for everything and developed this feeling against those who were considered to be “outsiders” and that threaten their position. For example workers for those who were willing to work for low wages; Protestants against Jews and Catholics etc.

Xenophobia: it is the hatred or fear for foreign or strangers. For example they posted signs such as “No Jews or dogs allowed”, ethnics jokes, and calling names.

Reasons for immigration:

The opportunity to work in America's new factories.

To escape intolerable conditions at their homelands.

To earn money to their families.

For the “American dream”: the search of hope, a better future and life to their families and themselves.